Shropshire Firefighters to take part in gas cloud exercise
Shropshire firefighters will deal with a reported “gas cloud” at the county’s largest storage depot as part of a major night time training exercise on Thursday 10 March.
More than 50 firefighters from five county fire stations plus firefighting colleagues from Malpas in Cheshire will be involved in the alert which aims to thoroughly test their skills at handling a serious chemical incident.
They will descend on the Grocontinental compound in Whitchurch Business Park – one of the largest freezer stores in Europe with 90,000 palletts stacked to the roof with food from across the world.
The simulated exercise will involve firefighters dealing with injured workers after a serious ammonia leak at the plant. Wearing specialist green chemical protection suits, firefighters will carry out the rescue followed by a full decontamination exercise.
“Our colleagues from Cheshire will be working with us so that they can familiarise themselves with the set up at Grocontinental because if there ever was a major incident then they would be involved,” said exercise organiser Mark Smith, a Retained Support Officer with Shropshire Fire and Rescue Service.
Crews from Whitchurch, Prees, Newport, Wellington, Tweedale and Malpas along with the Incident Command Unit from Shrewsbury will be at Whitchurch Fire Station before responding to the alert at around 7pm.
Shropshire firefighters do train with fellow firefighters from neighbouring brigades to be prepared for incidents which need cross border support.
The Whitchurch exercise is designed to test firefighters in their response to hazardous materials, rescuing casualties, communications, incident command and inter agency liaison.
“It is vitally important that we hold a number of major training exercises each year to test the skills of all our firefighters and we are very grateful to employers such as Grocontinental for helping us,” said Mr Smith.
Shropshire Fire and Rescue Service is recognised as one of the best brigade’s in the UK with many of the county’s firefighting force being retained firefighters who have other day jobs. They train regularly and are ready to answer any emergency call.
Members of the public who are interested in becoming a retained firefighter should contact brigade HQ on 01743 260200 or visit www.shropshirefire.gov.uk.
